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Posts in Future of Healthcare
Lessons from the adoption of AI in healthcare finance

By Pamela J. Gallagher 

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is the topic on every healthcare leader’s mind. In many ways, though, AI is old news to those of us in healthcare finance. I can say from experience that once an AI technology comes onto the scene, there is no stopping it. AI is here to stay. The question leaders must grapple with is how to embrace it wisely and with purpose.

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What I’m learning about moving forward in uncertainty

By Pamela J. Gallagher

It’s been 18 months since COVID-19 changed everything, and I am exhausted. We have endured tremendous loss as a society: loss of life, finances, jobs, routines, community…and the list goes on. Coping with uncertainty has become “normal.”

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Telehealth and the “new normal”

By Pamela J. Gallagher

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare professionals were making predictions about telehealth’s effectiveness and the possibility of its post-pandemic adoption (including me). Nearly a year after the rapid rise in telehealth usage brought on by the virus, we are starting to get a clearer picture of telehealth’s role in the healthcare landscape as we inch closer to post-pandemic life.

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Retail newcomers are great for healthcare, but bad for health systems

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Patients have been begging for affordability for decades, and the healthcare industry’s reluctance to innovate and adapt to patient demands has left a door open for retailers to move into the healthcare business. I believe this will be great for healthcare, but potentially disastrous for health systems.

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Plummeting ED volumes offer an opportunity to re-imagine hospital finances

By Pamela J. Gallagher

In 2019, emergency departments (ED) across the U.S. saw an average of 2.1 million patients per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the past several decades, healthcare organizations have invested large amounts of money, time, and effort to study the trend of ever-increasing numbers of high-utilizers in the ED and discover solutions to slow this growth. Hospitals have offered care navigators, clinics for less emergent issues, and countless other alternatives, but with next to no progress. People, it seems, just wanted to come to the ED.

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Will ‘unprecedented’ times lead to unprecedented change?

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Whether in reports from journalists, briefings from government officials, or socially-distanced conversations with next-door neighbors, “unprecedented” seems to be the word on everyone’s lips these days.

It is certainly true that in the United States, we have not experienced anything quite like the societal, economical, and public health impacts of COVID-19 in our lifetime. However, if we look into the not-too-distant past, we see that today’s events are not entirely unprecedented, and that the past may offer perspective to the healthcare industry as we find a way forward.

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